“My Brand Is…”: 5 Must-Have Qualities For Your Company’s Brand

Written by Chris Santoro

February 9th, 2015

Branding can seem like a pretty big concept to many people either running businesses or thinking about starting one. You have to consider every aspect of your company and what its current objectives and goals are. It even trickles down into the actual “voice” of your company, or the language it speaks to your target audience.

You may already have a business or start-up right now, with some sort of branding in place. It’s always a must-have when starting out, especially as you build a working foundation for the business to grow up from. People will identify your company immediately from its branding, whether the tagline hits them in the right way or the logo itself is strikingly unique; but it could also be in the way that your brand is portrayed throughout different medias.

So whether you’re looking to strengthen your current brand, refresh it, or even rebrand all together, you want your brand to say the following:

My Brand Is Current

Good branding should be able to stand the test of time. If not, a “dated” looking brand will most likely detract from new prospects or business. Think about the last time you invested (time or money) into your company’s logo. Does it need a refresh?

My Brand Is Flexible

Your brand’s look-and-feel should be able to perform well on a variety of different media. Flexibility, in this case, can me a lot of things; from having various logo versions for different contexts, to having set graphics, illustrations, or photography choices at your disposal for proper marketing.

My Brand is Consistent

Look at your current marketing materials. Do all the colors look the same? Is your logo treated properly on all of them? Consistency makes clear brand communication. The moment you become inconsistent with your brand standards, it may confuse your current target audience and/or detract from more outreach.

My Brand is Made Well

A properly designed logo and brand identity will be produced well on both print and web. Looks aside, does your logo work well at different sizes without losing quality? Is it easily read well? Kick blurry logos to the curb!

My Brand is Mine

At its essence, branding is about your company being itself. It’s analyzing what makes your company what it is, and interpreting it into an identity that creates relationships with your target audience. You’re the leader at what you do. Talk like one, look like one, but still be you.

We’d like to announce that we’ll be part of a branding & design panel, alongside Upstatement at WeWork Fort Point, hosted by the awesome people at General Assembly. We’ll cover a bunch of topics, including the necessity of good branding for start-ups and small businesses, when and how to go about it, and other design-related inquiries. Come on down, learn something, and if not for the educating factors, come down for a free beer.

Written by Chris Santoro

Chris Santoro graduated from Massart in 2012 on a mission: to start a kickass design agency and make awesome brands even more awesome. Fast forward to 2017, and alongside three longtime friends, he's helped lead the visual direction and execution of beautifully designed and dynamic brands for tech start-ups and small businesses alike. With clients in Northeastern University, VELCRO, and Saucony, alongside various Boston agencies, he works fast and efficiently to help his clients meet their goals.

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[post_content] => WE DID IT.
BLESS.
The new website is launched, and we couldn't be more stoked. Our doors are open, and we're officially looking to round out our client list. If you're in the market for an immersive web experience or ready to make your brands presence felt, then allow us to lend an ear... we'll both love the conversation. Also, if you haven't yet, go check out our work! (in a separate tab of course)
Post launch we find ourselves with the responsibility of filling the site with pages, and those pages with content; so here we go!
If you've been around the site a bit, you've seen us describe brands as bold, beautiful or intelligent; collaborations we fall in love with. That passion is shared by each member of our team, and is the driving force behind the unique relationships we build with our clients & partners.
Internally we've taken to calling this drive we share the known 'ether'... so we figured it would make a solid title for our creative corner tucked away here. Our writing certainly will be focused and geared around our industry, work, and professional landscapes (well...most of the time). But more importantly, we want each post here to share and express that passion. It truly is our common denominator, regardless of discipline. When I write, it will be fueled by the same drive that fuels my late nights curating content, gathering and sourcing reference materials, or crafting concepts. More importantly I guarantee the same drive and excitement exists with the rest of this team.
Buckle up.
PS - Speaking of when the team writes, feel free to jump over to one of our posts if you're still itching for reading material. Or just subscribe for the future, if you're the always-looking-forward type.
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[post_content] => Think back to your science fair days. You and your classmates had to document your experiments on those classic gatefold poster boards. You had to display the problem, state your hypothesis, dictate your procedure, state your findings, and then finally—as if it wasn't enough already—state your conclusion on whether or not your hypothesis was right. That was a ton of work, especially if the experiment wasn't successful!
If you're a start-up owner/employee, and if you're reading this right now, I imagine you either really loved doing those, or you hated them with a passion (just like yours truly). Little did we know we’d be taking this process into adulthood, only this time, it's for the company that's paying our bills. Here at known.creative, when we're doing client work, we're in a constant process of thinking by making things, and then tweaking them based on feedback; keeping all of our branding relevant to the people who matter: the end customer. For start-ups these days, it's pretty much the same thing.
We call it "the creative process".
I define the creative process as the methodological intersection of art and science to create meaningful and functional contexts—through iteration and inquiry—to better influence present circumstances and solve problems.
The best kinds of companies—large and small—end up adopting this process to better understand their target audience and their needs so they can eventually build the proper solution for them. This is the antithesis of creating stuff on the fly based on assumptions. In fact, by assuming things that are most definitely not backed by hard data, you turn a blind eye to what your customers are looking for. Simply put, the creative process allows us to break through the barriers of our own assumptions by unearthing new questions and possibilities through making.
…Unless of course, you’re a mind reader. If you are, please email us as we’d like to hire you.
So how can you begin to apply this to your start-up or small business? Well it’s just like doing a science fair project. Whether you’re creating a new, ground-breaking product, or revisiting the infrastructure of your company, look back to the creative process:

Research The Problem: What’s wrong? Do your customers actually suffer from this problem, or do you just think they do? How bad is it? Who is it affecting? What are their stories?

Narrow Down Your “Hypothesis”: This can be re-interpreted to be the “pitch”. Based on your research, what is your product going to do to solve the problem? Or, how will your company solve the problem?